In road paving, at one time it was thought that the base for the surfacing material should comprise a granular or gravel base. However, more recently, it has been concluded that there was a considerable difference in the performance between such bases and cement-aggregate or bituminous (asphalt)-aggregate bases. As reported in the Highway Research Board Special Report 61E, titled The AASHO Road Test, Report 5, Pavement Research, publication 954 of National Academy of Sciences -- National Research Council, there is a clear superiority of such treated bases over untreated bases. In recent years, treated bases have become commonly known as stabilized bases.
In subsequent work, for example, use of asphalt mixtures in all courses of pavement above the subgrade has been proposed, The Asphalt Institute, Information Series No. 146, June 1968. Asphalt stabilized bases have become the most dominant stabilized base utilized to support a flexible surfacing such as asphalt concrete. In addition, asphalt concrete has found extensive use as a resurfacing material for concrete pavement.
It has also been proposed that a lime-fly ash-aggregate stabilized base be used in road paving. Such a base consists of a mixture of proper quantities of lime, fly ash, and graded aggregate at optimum moisture content, in which the stability is greatly enhanced by the cementing action which results from complex chemical reactions between the lime and the fly ash in the presence of water.
Stabilized bases are usually employed as base courses under wearing surfaces such as hot mixed, hot laid asphaltic concrete. A wearing surface is necessary to resist the high shearing stresses which are caused by traction, but the stabilized base provides the required stability to support wheel loads.
A serious obstacle to the expanded use of stabilized bases is the high energy costs for making the materials.
For example, it is well known that the production of portland cement which is used in stabilizing bases requires substantial quantities of coal in manufacture. In fact, the United States Department of Transportation has suggested that fly ash be substituted for a portion of the portland cement utilized in concrete or cement-aggregate bases, Federal Highway Administration Notice N5080.4, Jan. 17, 1974.
The use of asphalt in asphalt-aggregate bases which is derived from petroleum processing not only utilizes petroleum which is in short supply but also requires high energy to produce them.
Similarly, the lime, fly ash and graded aggregate stabilized bases utilize lime which requires coal in production. Such bases have been used in limited geographical areas of the United States where they can compete economically because of availability of lime and fly ash.
Thus, the predominantly used stabilized bases utilize materials that are in short supply and require substantial quantities of energy to produce them. The materials may be termed energy intensive. There is a need to avoid or minimize the use of such energy intensive materials in road paving.
Accordingly, among the objects of the invention are to provide a mixture of materials for producing a stabilized base comprising a hard, strong, durable mass capable of supporting surfacing which avoids or minimizes the use of materials which are energy intensive and, moreover, utilizes materials that normally are waste materials that are readily available.